Who is Satish Maneshinde, the high-profile lawyer defending Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan in Mumbai drugs case?

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday (October 3) following a raid on a rave party in Mumbai on Saturday night. Besides Aryan Khan, the NCB also arrested his friends Arbaaz Merchantt and Munmun Dhamecha. 

Within hours, well-known advocate Satish Maneshinde came out to defend Aryan Khan. Satish Maneshinde is regarded as one of the most expensive criminal lawyers in the country and he has defended several Bollywood stars in the past, including Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt.

Maneshinde defended Sanjay Dutt in 1993 Bombay blast case and succeeded in securing bail for the superstar. Later, Maneshinde also defended Sanjay Dutt in the Arms Act case in 2007.

Maneshinde started his career as a junior lawyer under Ram Jethmalani, one of the top lawyers in India. Maneshinde worked with Jethmalani for around a decade and handled several high-profile cases including Bollywood stars.

In 2002, Maneshinder also represented Salman Khan in drunk driving case and secured bail for him. It is to be noted that Salman was later acquitted by the court in this case.

More recently, Maneshinde was in the news for defending actress Rhea Chakraborty in Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. Rhea hired the services of Maneshinde after Sushant's family accused her of 'abetment to suicide' and she was later arrested for possession of drugs. 

The NCB arrested Aryan after busting a drugs party.  The NCB also seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD, 21 grams of hash and 22 pills of Ecstasy and Rs 1.33 lakh from the cruise.

A special holiday court on Sunday remanded Khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant to the custody of the NCB till October 4. The agency has booked Khan under sections 27 (punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance), 8C (produce, manufacture, possess, sell or purchase of drugs) and other relevant provisions of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).